Robert Burns

Robert Crawford, who wrote The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography, says that Scotland's national poet shares with the best hip-hop artists a genius for rhymes that are completely "liberated from the hegemony of standard English".

The summer days in Scotland are mild and long. The Highland Games and the Edinburgh Festival dominate the social calendar, but away from the cities and crowds, there are castles, beaches, pubs, mountains and, of course, lochs filled with mythical monsters.

The place names of the Scottish Highlands are filled with history, tragedy, music, legend and whisky: Aberfeldy, Blairgowrie, Culloden, Dalwhinnie, Fort William, Glencoe, Invergordon, Kyle of Lochalsh, Muir of Ord, Oban, Stornoway and Tobermory.